CHARLOTTESVILLE -- University of Virginia football players will wear retro uniforms tomorrow, a sight sure to elicit happy memories for many at Scott Stadium.

The days of Shawn Moore and Chris Slade and Herman Moore were glorious ones for a program that for decades had had little to cheer.

The Virginia-Richmond game won't be the only attraction tomorrow. To celebrate a stretch of 10 seasons, 1984 to '93, in which the Cavaliers won 72 games, the university will honor the '89 team at halftime.

George Welsh, who retired in 2000 after 19 seasons as Virginia's coach, will be there, along with Shawn Moore, Herman Moore, Slade and dozens of others from that team.

In 1990, the Wahoos briefly occupied the No. 1 spot in the national polls, and that team has long overshadowed its predecessor. But the '89 Cavaliers still are the only team in school history to win 10 games, and they were the first to capture an ACC championship. Moreover, they were the first to play in a New Year's Day bowl.

"Great talent, great leadership," Welsh said yesterday. "The offense, the execution was unbelievable, and we had a pretty good defense."

The Cavaliers closed 1988 with five straight wins and entered the '89 season stocked with talented players, among them Shawn Moore at quarterback, Herman Moore at wide receiver, Roy Brown at offensive guard, Slade and Ray Savage at defensive end, Ray Roberts at offensive tackle, Marcus Wilson at tailback, Ron Carey at nose guard, Joe Hall at defensive tackle and Jake McInerney at kicker.

They opened with a thud, losing 36-13 to second-ranked Notre Dame in the Kickoff Classic in New Jersey. A week later, U.Va. traveled to State College, Pa., to meet the nation's 12th-ranked team.

"I remember the locker room for the Penn State game," Hall said yesterday. "It was so quiet, and that can go one of two ways: Nobody's focused, and you're going to get run over, or everybody's focused, and you're going to play your [rear ends] off."

The Cavaliers stunned the Nittany Lions 14-6 and went on to win nine of their next 10 games. Would they have been to able to finish first in the ACC had they opened the season with back-to-back losses?

"It's hard to tell," Welsh said. "Whether it would have hurt us or not, losing, I don't know. But [the win over PSU] helped us."

In its second ACC game, U.Va. destroyed Duke 49-28, and it wasn't as close as the score would suggest. The Cavaliers' lone conference loss -- the ACC was an eight-team league back then -- came against Clemson, naturally. With Shawn Moore out with a shoulder injury suffered in a win over William and Mary, U.Va. lost 34-20 at No. 15 Clemson to fall to 0-29 in the series.

A year later, of course, The Streak ended when Virginia whipped Clemson 20-7 in Charlottesville. Still, Welsh can't help wondering what might have been in '89. "Maybe if Shawn hadn't gotten hurt in the William and Mary game . . . "

U.Va. and Duke each finished 6-1 in league play in 1989 and thus shared the ACC title. Steve Spurrier, then Duke's coach, belittled the Cavaliers' claim to the crown, noting that, unlike his team, they'd lost to Clemson, the league's perennial champion.

Nearly two decades later, Welsh still bristles at Spurrier's comment.

"I remember it," Welsh said yesterday. "One thing I never could understand about Steve Spurrier, we scored touchdowns on seven straight possessions [against Duke], and it could have been worse."

A 31-21 loss to Jeff George-led Illinois in the Florida Citrus Bowl ended a remarkable season for Virginia (10-3). The 1990 Cavaliers had a more explosive offense -- Shawn Moore finished fourth and Herman Moore sixth in the Heisman Trophy race -- and attracted more national attention, but the '89 team accomplished more on the field.

"That was a hell of a football team," Shawn Moore said.
Contact Jeff White at (804) 649-6838 or jwhite@timesdispatch.com.